This invention relates to an apparatus for automatically applying and at the same time pressing a sealing agent to be filled into a joint portion of abutted panels or the like, that is, a joint between abutted panels or the like connected together by spot welding or the like for making a motorcar body, for instance.
It has been usual hitherto that a sealing operation for given air-tightness and liquid-tightness to a joint of abutted panels or the like is carried out manually by using a sealing gun. A forward end portion of a nozzle of the sealing gun is moved along on the joint while being kept in contact with the joint. During this movement a sealing agent is delivered from the nozzle for being applied thereto. Thereafter the applied sealing agent is pushed to be filled into the joint by spreading the same with a brush or trowel. This manual sealing operation, however, is inconvenient in that it is necessary for a worker to work in an unnatural posture in some occasions because of the shape of the car body or the place of a portion to be sealed. Further, it requires a great deal of skill to apply and fill the sealing agent uniformly and accurately. It is necessary to take two steps, that is, a step for applying the sealing agent and a step for filling the same, so that a workability is lowered.
For removing this inconvenience and automating the sealing operation, a sealing apparatus has been developed which comprises an industrial robot having a sealing gun. A nozzle provided on a forward end portion of the sealing gun may be moved along on a portion to be sealed in accordance with a locus of a program previously memorized by the robot. This sealing apparatus, however, has the disadvantages in that, on sealing a portion, for instance, of a joint of panels connected together by spot welding or the like for making a motorcar body, a good sealing is difficult to achieve, and the surface of the workpiece is liable to be injured by the nozzle by contact of the nozzle during its movement. Further, because of a dispersion in joints of panels, unreliable correction by handwork at the time of motorcar body assembling, an error in accuracy in motorcar body positioning, or an error in accuracy in the robot at the time of teaching or the like, it often happens that the moving nozzle deviates from the joint to be sealed. Similarly to the foregoing manually handled sealing gun, it is impossible to effect simultaneously the step for applying the sealing agent of the joint and the step for filling or pressing same therein.